


The Great Wide Somewhere

by applejackcat



Series: The Great Wide Somewhere [1]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-23
Updated: 2015-12-12
Packaged: 2018-05-02 23:53:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5268617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/applejackcat/pseuds/applejackcat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Belle helps an injured father and his young son on a bitterly cold winter’s night, she discovers the great wide somewhere adventure for which she has always longed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Down An Unexpected Path

**Author's Note:**

> So, I feel a bit like ABC scheduling Once Upon A Time during the second season, but I've made yet another (and final!) change to this tale. I have decided to make this a chaptered story instead of a series, because of some helpful feedback and because it makes more sense to me, given the direction I want to take it. The parts will therefore become chapters, with Down An Unexpected Path becoming chapter one, and so on. Thank you so much for bearing with me!

Looming drifts of snow lined the narrow country road. Belle could scarcely see ten feet ahead of her, but she drove slowly and kept a firm hand on Chip’s wheel. Her trusty pickup had seen her through worse storms than this one, and she trusted she would reach Anna’s and Kris’s home in time for dinner. Granny would give her a stern lecture about driving in unsafe weather conditions, but it would be nowhere near as severe as the one she’d get if she staid home alone on Thanksgiving.

Belle spotted the figure long before she reached him: a slender dark shape nearly bent double in the brutal wind. She slammed on Chip’s breaks and slid to a halt a few feet before him. The man paid her no attention, simply continued on his merry way in what Belle saw was a woefully inadequate denim jacket. She could tell that whatever the coat concealed would offer this foolhardy soul little in the way of warmth.

Rolling down her window, Belle called out to him. “Hi there! Hello! Do you need help?”

He paused for the briefest of moments, but he did not turn to speak to her and just as quickly resumed his pace. Muttering a salty curse under her breath, Belle threw Chip into park and turned him off. She leapt from the truck and dashed after the stranger.

The snow reached her knees, and gales of wind tore unrelentingly at her. But if she didn’t reach this man, he would likely die from exposure. By now hypothermia could well have occurred.

“Please, wait!” Belle called desperately. “I want to help you."

She shrieked in surprise when the man whirled around to face her, her cry carried away as if it had never existed. The man’s thin, handsome face made his blazing, desperate brown eyes all the more bewitching. He fixed Belle with a stare that shot through her like an electric current and twined his interests with hers.

Belle knew that nothing easy lay before her, but she could not have returned to Chip had the four horsemen descended upon her. She had offered the man her aid. Belle French did not make such offers lightly, and now she would follow him wherever he went.

The man turned away from Belle and started to walk again, this time at a faster clip. She struggled to match his place and, on more than one occasion, went pitching forward into the snow. She scratched her hand on something sharp and hidden; the injury throbbed incessantly.

Finally, the man reached a fork in the road. Belle had come from the left path, the one that led into Storybrooke.

He veered right.

Belle’s stomach clenched anxiously when she saw the stranger halt several yards ahead of her. He stared at something Belle could not see until she had almost reached him. With a speed he had not shown in the past fifteen minutes, he darted through a hole in the snow bank.

Based on the angle, it would be hard to spot it unless a person knew for what they needed to look.

A car made that hole.

Belle said a silent prayer as she followed the man. When she stepped into a clearing, she could not see him. She didn’t look too hard, though, as the upside-down car in the center of it drew her eye.

“Oh my God!”

Fumbling for her cell phone, Belle charged towards the car, an old silver Toyota. Except for being the wrong side up, it did not look too battered, and Belle hoped the same could be said for its occupants.

As she reached the car, Belle heard someone crying loudly.

“Daddy!” came a young boy’s muffled voice. “Daddy! Please wake up!”

Belle scrambled for the other side of the Toyota, where she threw open the back door. A small boy with a messy mop of curls sobbed fearfully in his seat, reaching for a slumped, still figure in the driver’s seat.

When he saw her, he stared.

“Daddy won’t wake up,” he whispered.

Belle did not know what to say. She didn’t think the car would catch fire, but she needed to get the child out of it.

“I want to help you and your daddy,” Belle promised. “I’ll try waking him up after I help you out of your seatbelt. Is that okay?”

Tearfully, the boy nodded.

Belle used her arms to form a basket under him. “Unbuckle yourself now,” she instructed him gently. “I’ll catch you.”

The boy weighed about as much as a feather, and he fell easily into Belle’s embrace. She wrapped him in her coat and set him down. “I’m Belle. What’s your name?”

Working in the library had given her plenty of experience working with small children. Be kind, be authentic, and you’ll win their trust. This wee one looked ready to burrow against her and never let go.

“I’m Bae,” he told her cautiously.

Belle smiled at Bae. “I like that name. What’s your daddy’s name, Bae?”

Bae jerked away from her. “Daddy! Daddy, wake up!” He tried to dive back into the car, but Belle spun him away from the door.

“Wait, Bae! I need to check on your father. But I want you to wait here, okay?”

“Please don’t leave me!” Bae begged.

Belle’s heart ached at the fear she heard in his voice. “I’ll sing to you, Bae. Is that okay? If I sing to you while I check on your dad?”

Bae considered this for a moment before telling her, “Let It Be.”

She couldn’t help herself: Belle smiled. “It’s a deal. I’ll be right here, Bae.” She stood and crept around the front of the car.

“When find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me. Speaking words of wisdom. Let it be.”

Belle reached the driver’s side front door and prepared herself for whatever she might find.

“And in my hour of darkness, she is standing right in front of me. Speaking words of wisdom. Let it be.”

Belle pulled the door open. “Let it be, let it be. Let it be. Let it –”

She stopped singing with a choking gasp.

Bae’s father was still breathing. He had knocked his head against something, and the wound bled. But what caught Belle’s attention and fixed her to the spot was the man’s face: the last time she’d seen him, his eyes had been open and fierce, desperate for her to understand his need.

Bae’s father was the man in the snow, the very same person who led Belle to the clearing.


	2. And the Mysteries Grow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How frightened must a man be to flee with his wee child into the heart of a blizzard?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I feel a bit like ABC scheduling Once Upon A Time during the second season, but I've made yet another (and final!) change to this tale. I have decided to make this a chaptered story instead of a series, because of some helpful feedback and because it makes more sense to me, given the direction I want to take it. The parts will therefore become chapters, with Down An Unexpected Path becoming chapter one, and so on. Thank you so much for bearing with me!

Belle staggered backwards, as if putting distance between herself and the car would offer her a measure of clarity. Moments before, a figure who wore the same face and clothes as this unconscious man led her to the clearing in which she now stood. Her entire life, Belle had yearned for adventure so badly she could sometimes taste it. When she finally managed to wander into one, the first twist sent her reeling.

 

“You stopped singing!” Bae called, his voice nearly lost to the wind.

 

_Pull it together, French!_

 

His cry, trembling and uncertain, gave Belle purpose. She let the biting wind whip across her face, refocusing her. Bae needed her. She could breakdown later, but right now, she had to get this man and his son medical attention.

 

“I’m coming, Bae,” she called, jogging around the Toyota so she could crouch down beside him. “I’m sorry I stopped singing. Something surprised me, is all.”

 

Bae’s large eyes widened. “Daddy?” he asked.

 

“Yeah,” Belle said. “I recognized him.”

 

Bae frowned at her. “We don’t know you,” he told her firmly. “You’re a stranger.” A thought occurred to him, and he took several steps away from Belle. “I don’t talk to strangers.” In Bae’s mouth, the word sounded worse than the filthiest curse.

 

Despite the situation’s gravity, Belle chuckled. “You’re right, Bae. Most of the time, you shouldn’t talk to people you don’t know. Not without your parents. But your dad hasn’t woken up, so this is an exception.”

 

“What’s an inception?”

 

“An exception. It means that sometimes it’s okay to break a rule.”

 

Bae considered her for a moment, but Belle suspected that he loved easily, for he quickly returned to her side. “Belle, I can make an exception if you will be my friend.”

 

Belle smiled and nodded. “I would like that very much, Bae.”

 

“You’ll have to be friends with Peter, too,” Bae informed her.

 

“Is Peter your daddy, Bae?”

 

Bae giggled and shook his head. Belle knew she needed to take stock of the situation and make important decisions, but she could not deny him a glimmer of happiness during this frightening time. “No, Belle. Peter is my best friend.”

 

“Well, then, I hope I can meet him someday,” Belle assured him.

 

“You can meet him now,” Bae declared.

 

Belle’s heart skipped a beat. In her panic, had she missed another person in the car? When Bae darted around her to his open door, she cried out and lunged to stop him. Her fingers grazed the back of her coat, and she watched as he bent into the dark confines of the car wreck. Moments later, he popped out and turned to face her.

 

“Why are you playing in the snow?” Bae asked, cocking his head. A well-loved plush rabbit dangled from one hand.

 

“Oh!” Belle cried, comprehension dawning. “You meant Peter Rabbit!”

 

“No!” Bae shouted, offended by her mistake. “He’s Peter Pan! He’s a lost boy, not a rabbit!” He shook the stuffed animal for good measure.

 

Suddenly a sound, so full of terror and grief that Belle barely recognized it as human, burst from the Toyota, startling them.  _“BAELFIRE! BAELFIRE, WHERE ARE YOU?”_

 

Bae burst into tears, clutching Peter to his chest. “Daddy!” he wailed, running to his father. Belle swept him into her arms before he could make it around the car to the driver’s door. “Let me go!” Bae sobbed, struggling against her.

 

The man inside the car snarled. “You get your bleeding hands off of my boy!” he bellowed. Belle heard the unmistakable click of a seatbelt disengaging and then the noise caused by something heavy landing in broken glass. The man shrieked in pain, but Belle suspected that once he extracted himself from the car, he would hurl himself at her.

 

She needed to diffuse the situation.

 

“My name’s Belle! I -- I found your car, and when I heard your son crying, I helped him out. He wanted to come to you now, but, uh, I didn’t know if he should see you just yet. I promise, I don’t mean either of you any harm. I was just about to call an ambulance --”

 

“No!” Bae’s father cried in a thick Scottish burr. “No ambulances! Please!”

 

His plea shocked Belle. “You’ve been in an accident! You and Bae need to go to a hospital. You were knocked unconscious and sustained a head injury. I know in movies and television they make it seem like you can bounce back from a concussion, but it’s much more serious than that!”

 

With considerable effort, using the car for support, the man pulled himself to his feet. A jagged cut ran down the right side of his brow, and his skin looked ashen. He shivered as the snow whipped about his shoulders. He wore the same blazing, desperate look that whatever brought her here wore, and once again, his interests became Belle’s. “We cannot go to a hospital,” he declared emphatically.

 

In Belle’s arms, Bae wailed for his father. Her slender arms, dwarfed within the sleeves of Belle’s coat, reached for him. “Daddy!” he begged, nearly dropping Peter in his desperation to reach the one person in the world who could make him feel safe again.

 

Covering his cut with one hand, the man reached across the car’s belly for his son. “Bae, my precious boy. Are you all right, sweetheart? Are you hurt?”

 

“He looks fine,” Belle told him, struggling to keep herself upright as Bae wriggled. “But looks can be deceiving.”

 

_What if your child’s hurt on the inside, where we can’t see?_

 

She could tell from the father’s stricken expression that her unspoken words had hit their mark. What had him so frightened that he would even consider refusing medical attention? For the first time, Belle wondered why an underdressed man in a Toyota sedan would brave a Maine blizzard with his young child in the backseat. He obviously adored his son. When he’d considered the risks might incur, the snow storm seemed like the safer option.

 

_Be careful what you wish for, French. You wanted an adventure, and now you’ve got one._

 

Belle wondered at what point an adventure became a series of horrible decisions. She worried that if she became further involved with this man and his son, she’d lose the ability to recognize that moment.

 

“We need to continue this discussion elsewhere,” Belle said at last, eyeing the man’s blue lips and shaking shoulders. Bae’s movements in her arms grew sluggish. “It’s freezing out here. We don’t have the luxury of standing her and arguing. My car is a little more than a quarter of a mile from here. Let’s go there and warm up.”

 

The man grimaced. “I -- I think my leg might be broken.”

 

Belle pressed her lips together. Oh, yeah. This man was running from something all right. But unless she got him and his son back to Chip, figuring out his story would be for naught.

 

“How’s your other leg?” she asked.

 

“Just dandy.”

 

Belle set Bae down. “Can you walk, Bae? I need to help your dad.”

 

“I want to help Daddy too,” Bae whined. His tears had frozen on his cheeks and, in the moonlight, glittered like tiny jewels.

 

“Help me by leading us, Bae,” his father called. “You’re so brave, sweetheart. I know you’ll be a grand leader.”

 

Bae turned toward’s the sound of his father’s voice. “Peter too?”

 

“Lost boys make wonderful leaders, love,” the man answered.

 

Taking Bae’s free hand, Belle lead him around the car. When Bae drew near to his father, he squealed and threw himself forward. He thudded into his father’s uninjured leg and wrapped his arms around it.

 

“Daddy,” he sighed happily.

 

Bae’s father bent over to ruffle his son’s hair. “Lead the way, son.”

 

Dragging Peter behind him, Bae started trudging towards the hole in the snow bank that lead to the road. Belle rushed to his father, and the pair of them struggled to find a comfortable position.

 

“Have we met before, Belle?” he asked her softly.

 

“You tell me,” Belle muttered. “I don’t even know your name.”

 

The man remained silent for a long while. When Belle didn’t stagger under his weight, he allowed her to support him more. They could not move quickly, and with each step Belle felt him tense from the pain.

 

Finally he spoke. “My name,” he told her, “is Gold.” 


	3. Peter and the Wolf

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the cold winds howl and Gold’s condition deteriorates, Belle begs him to trust her with his life and his son’s.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I feel a bit like ABC scheduling Once Upon A Time during the second season, but I've made yet another (and final!) change to this tale. I have decided to make this a chaptered story instead of a series, because of some helpful feedback and because it makes more sense to me, given the direction I want to take it. The parts will therefore become chapters, with Down An Unexpected Path becoming chapter one, and so on. Thank you so much for bearing with me!

After giving Belle his name, Gold only spoke when Bae called out to him. She still itched to ask him a million questions, but as she watched him interact with his son her doubts about him dwindled. She thought of the stark terror in his voice when he had awoken to find his child missing and watched how, even with a head wound and a broken leg, he refused to let Bae see his pain.

It spoke volumes to Belle that a smile and a simple reassurance from Gold could calm a child who’d been through so much that night.  

Father and son plainly adored each other. Belle would have to capitalize on that love if she wanted to get them to the hospital with Gold’s blessing. She sensed that trying to come between him and Bae would awaken the ferocious man who’d first emerged from the wrecked car. If she wanted to help them, it would be far easier to stay on Gold’s good side.

When Bae trudged ahead of them, disappearing momentarily around the snow bank that separated the road and the clearing, Belle made another plea. “You have a concussion. Your leg is broken. Judging from how you tense with every step we take, I’d say your ribs are bruised, too. You need to see a doctor.” She paused. If the biting wind pierced her numerous layers, then she couldn’t imagine how it tore through Gold. “You’re freezing, too. You and Bae should be monitored to make sure neither of you have hypothermia.”

Gold grunted angrily. “No hospitals,” he growled through gritted teeth.

“Daddy, Peter Pan wants hot chocolate. And he’s tired.” Bae had paused ahead of them, keen to stay near his father but enchanted enough by winter’s might to blaze their trail a few yards to their front.

“Just a little longer, Bae,” Gold called out. Belle felt him rally, drawing himself upwards, so he could offer the boy a wane smile. “Tell me it’s not too much farther,” he begged her in a lower voice.

“My car shouldn’t be too much further, Bae,” Belle assured both father and son. She couldn’t wait to climb into Chip and get out of the storm. “And tell Peter I have access to the best hot chocolate recipe on the east coast.” She thought of Granny and the telling-off that would come with their cocoa.

Satisfied, Bae plunged ahead in the snow, dragging his stuffed rabbit behind him. Belle turned her attention to Gold again, resuming their conversation.

“Doctors don’t usually make house calls,” she observed. Then, something clicked in her mind. Unless there’s something in it for them. “If I could arrange that, though! If I could figure out a way to bring a doctor to us, you’d allow that?”

“Us?” Gold asked. He and Belle took another lurching step together, and he hissed as her fingers brushed his ribs. “Since when did we become us?”  

_Since something wearing your face led me to your crashed car. Before I knew you had a little boy to protect, too. You’re a mystery I’m desperate to solve, and I’m terrible at minding my own business._

“Do you put marshmallows in your hot chocolate?” Bae asked, interrupting Belle’s inner musings.  

“Personally, Bae, I have no interest in hot chocolate without marshmallows,” Belle assured him.

“Good answer,” Gold muttered to her.

“Neither does Peter!” Bae exclaimed happily. His shoulders rose and fell, his sigh snatched away by the wind. “I’m very cold, though.”

“We’ll be there soon, love,” Gold crooned. “You’re being such a brave big boy, Bae. I’m so proud of you.”

His father’s praise gave Bae an infusion of energy and gumption. He pulled Peter close to him and pressed forward again, eager to prove his maturity.

“You can trust me,” Belle said once Bae’s attention had turned from them again.  

“I don’t trust strangers,” Gold replied. “Especially not with my boy.”  

“You don’t have much of the choice, given the circumstances.”

Gold made a noise that might have been intended as a laugh but sounded more like a series of snarls. “You’re a sweet girl, but in all fairness, you have no idea what my circumstances are.”

“This sweet girl had enough sense to dress herself properly before driving into a snowstorm, so in all fairness, it seems like you could use some help.”

Against her, Gold’s shivers turned to shudders. Hypothermia, Belle fretted. They needed to move faster and reach Chip now. It would take them another fifteen, twenty minutes to reach Anna’s and Kris’s home, and Chip’s heating took its own sweet time to kick in. She couldn’t remember if she had blankets under the seats or if she’d taken them out to wash.  

  _Please don’t let us be too late,_  Belle prayed.  

 Once again, Bae’s cry broke her reverie. But this time he didn’t interrupt to ask about hot chocolate. Instead, he let out a shriek more piercing than his father’s as a giant shaggy beast knocked him into the snow.

Gold roared and threw himself forward. His broken leg collapsed under his weight, and he went crashing to the ground. Still, he tried to claw his way forward, the cold and his pain secondary to reaching his son. Belle rushed forward to stop him from injuring himself further.

“Wait, wait! Bae’s not in danger! It’s just Tuesday! Look, he’s fine!”

For a moment, Gold still struggled through the snow. Belle crouched down beside him and placed her hand on his back. Her words finally reached him, and he pushed himself upwards, trying and failing to stifle a gasp of pain. Gold stared, dumbfounded, as he watched his son wrap his arms around the neck of a gigantic wolf-like hound. The beast clutched Peter between its teeth and wagged her tail proudly.

“Is that a dog or a horse?” Gold asked hoarsely.

“It’s Tuesday,” Belle told him again, “and she means we’re saved.”

Small pricks of light danced in the distance. If Belle strained her ears, she could just about hear the roar of snowmobiles over the howling wind. Tuesday meant Ruby. The snowmobiles meant Kris and David and probably Granny too. An entire rescue mission sent out on her behalf.

“Tuesday belongs to a friend,” Belle said. “When I didn’t show up for dinner, I worried some people, and they came out searching for me.”

Gold looked pale and sunken, but that could as easily be from the cold as it could be from the prospect of involving more people in his and Bae’s lives. “It’s not that I don’t want help,” he muttered at last. “But you can’t know what offering me help will bring.” He jerked his head towards the pricks of light. “Neither can they.”

His warning hung in the air between them, confirming what Belle already suspected. Gold and Bae were running from something, someone, dangerous. To throw her lot in with theirs meant to take on an unknown, malevolent entity. And while she had already, and perhaps recklessly, made that very decision, she didn’t have the right to speak for her friends. They possessed lives made full and robust by their careers, their adventures, their children.

Belle had herself and her library and Chip.

Maybe it wasn’t her thirst for adventure that made her want to see Gold and Bae through to the end. Maybe she had been desperately lonely for ages, and it had taken a battered man and his darling son and an as yet unidentified threat to awaken her to that fact.

Either way, Belle needed to act. She saw Gold fading before her eyes, and even with her coat, Bae shivered and sniffled. She tried and failed to imagine a worse place than a snowstorm to make such the kind of decision that could affect so many.

Finally she said, “My friends are tough. You couldn’t ask for a better group of people to have behind you.”

And she cupped her hands around her mouth and howled.

 


	4. The Rescue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Help finally arrives, but not before Gold takes special notice of Belle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I feel a bit like ABC scheduling Once Upon A Time during the second season, but I've made yet another (and final!) change to this tale. I have decided to make this a chaptered story instead of a series, because of some helpful feedback and because it makes more sense to me, given the direction I want to take it. The parts will therefore become chapters, with Down An Unexpected Path becoming chapter one, and so on. Thank you so much for bearing with me!

For a moment, Belle howled alone.

She turned her face to the sky, closing her eyes so that her dark, frost-coated eyelashes shimmered across her cheekbones, and let forth a throaty, haunting melody. In his entire life, Gold had only witnessed a handful of scenes as glorious and arresting at the sight of Belle singing to the heavens.

Then the wolf dog dropped Peter Pan into the snow and padded forward, Bae trailing in its wake. Ears slicked back, giant paws planted firmly on the ground, it took up Belle’s call. They bayed together, their voices mingling and becoming one, even after the dancing lights in the distance swung towards them.  

Belle and the beast did not stop howling until the sound of the snowmobiles overpowered them. Her strength sapped by her efforts, she fell from a crouch onto her knees, gulping for air. Even as his mind became foggy and he struggled to put one thought in front of the other, Gold managed to focus upon the incredible, foolhardy woman before him.

“Daddy,” Bae whimpered as the first snowmobile roared to a stop on front of them. Gold forced his leaden arms to spread open so his son could snuggle into his embrace. He bit back a yelp as small arms squeezed his tender ribs. “I’m scared,” Bae whispered into his ear.

Gold wondered if Bae meant now, in the present, as a stranger dismounted the snowmobile and strode towards them, or if, in light of their recent flight, fear was his new status quo.

Since that frantic afternoon three days ago, Bae had taken each new leg of their adventure in stride.  

He didn’t mind playing hide-and-seek in the bushes with Peter while Daddy collected their new car. He seemed to enjoy watching new parts of the country fly by his window and engaged his father in round upon round of I Spy (which he always won).  

When Bae caught sight of the snow for the first time in his life, he cheered happily. Gold had stopped the car, costing them time they had no business wasting, so Bae could catch snowflakes on his tongue. The sleepy grin his son offered him as the walked back to the Toyota made his heart ache with fearsome love.

Less than three hours later, as Bae slept in the backseat, Gold took a corner too fast, the car’s wheels skidding on black ice as he fought to regain control. He remembered the world turning upside down and offering his soul to both Lucifer and God to spare his child. Gold had no idea which of them would turn up to collect the debt; but although he’d borne the physical brunt of the crash, he had no idea how long Bae wailed for him before Belle arrived.

“…faster on the snowmobiles…”

“…no hospitals, Rubes. Not until…”

“…out of your mind? Look at his…”

Fragments of Belle’s conversation with the newcomer drifted past Gold. The wolf dog pressed its face into the stranger’s side and swished its tail through the air. Two more snowmobiles appeared: two more strangers, each a wild card and a potential threat. Gold needed to get his head on straight. Bae was afraid, and he needed to protect Bae.

_But his leg screamed in agony. His head felt split open, raw, blazingly painful. And the cold threatened to swallow what uninjured parts of him remained._

“We need to go now,” Belle hissed to her friends. “We can continue this discussion back at the house. But if we don’t hurry now, we won’t be needing the upper floors of the hospital.”

A final snowmobile arrived, and this person bore supplies. The debate temporarily tabled, Belle directed her friends with the precision of a five-star general. A man in a bright red parka knelt by Gold and wrapped him in a space blanket while assessing how best to move him to a snowmobile. A stout older woman crouched on his other side and gently explained to him that she needed to take Bae, just for the ride back to a warm house, but that over her dead would any harm come to him.

“I want you, Daddy,” Bae sniffled, pressing his dear face into Gold’s neck.

“Your dad will be right behind us,” the older woman assured him.

“This is Granny, Bae,” Belle told them, joining their group. “Remember the hot chocolate recipe I told you about? She’s the one that makes it.”

“I’ll tell you my secret ingredient if you ride with me,” Granny added.

Bae shifted in Gold’s arms. “Daddy?” he asked, looking for reassurance that Gold felt ill-equipped to give.

“You’re so br--brave, Baelfire,” Gold murmured. The last thing he wanted to do was hand his child over to a perfect stranger. But Belle had a point: given his current circumstances, he didn’t have much of a choice. “I need for you to be brave just a little bit longer. Granny will take care of you. We’ll only be apart for a few minutes.”

“Promise?”

Until now, Bae hadn’t asked for reassurances.

“I pr-pr-promise, love,” Gold said, pressing a kiss to Bae’s cheek.

Bae’s hug crushed the air from Gold’s lungs and, courtesy of his bruised ribs, made stars dance at the edge of his vision. It did not last nearly long enough. When Bae retreated from Gold’s arms, he walked past Granny to the wolf dog, which had recaptured Peter Pan in its great jaws.

“Peter goes with you,” Bae declared, trying to tug the sodden stuffed rabbit from the beast’s mouth.

“Drop it, Tuesday,” another woman commanded. The hound ignored her and decided Bae wanted to play tug-of-war with it. “Tuesday, drop it, now!”

“Drop, Tuesday!” Granny barked. The dog released Peter immediately. “You have no authority, Ruby,” she said to the other woman, who rolled her eyes in response.

“Peter goes with you,” Bae repeated, returning to Gold’s side and extending the sodden plush toy to him.

With shaking, aching hands, Gold took Peter and clutched him to his chest. “I’ll keep him safe, Bae,” he swore.

His son blinked ponderously at him. “No, Daddy. Peter will watch over  _you_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The aforementioned glorious moments Gold witnessed are all of Bae's firsts: first breath, first smile, first laugh, first step, first word...


	5. Paging Dr. Whale

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At long last, Belle, Gold, and Bae reach a warm house. Unfortunately, the heat comes with a boatload of questions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I feel a bit like ABC scheduling Once Upon A Time during the second season, but I've made yet another (and final!) change to this tale. I have decided to make this a chaptered story instead of a series, because of some helpful feedback and because it makes more sense to me, given the direction I want to take it. The parts will therefore become chapters, with Down An Unexpected Path becoming chapter one, and so on. Thank you so much for bearing with me!

A figure flew from the house the moment the snowmobiles crested the ridge of the hill overlooking the seat of the Dales’ considerable wealth: Anna. The light from spilling from the home turned her red hair into a fiery beacon and, when Belle drew close enough, illuminated her furious expression.

“You worried Anna,” Ruby muttered. “Good luck with that one.” Tuesday, who’d kept good pace with the snowmobiles, barked her sympathies.

Anna launched herself at Belle before the snowmobile even slid to a stop. Her tears froze on Belle’s neck as she scolded and welcomed Belle in the same breath.

“I thought you had wrecked that old clunker of yours but I’m so glad you didn’t! What were you thinking, Belle? Thank goodness they found you, we held off eating, so the stuffing might be a bit dry by now. I promised God I would give up chocolate for the rest of my life if he spared you, but does it count if Kris and everyone found you before I made the promise? That’s how much I love you, Belle! So much I would give up chocolate to save you! So don’t you ever do something like this again!”

Still astride the snowmobile, Ruby chuckled. “I’m pretty glad we found you too.”

Belle wanted to go to Gold and Bae, but when she turned to watch Kris and David and Granny help them from the snowmobiles, Ruby caught her eye. She shook her head no, then jerked it towards Anna. Tuesday bounded over to Bae in her stead, making a play for Peter that had Bae howling in protest.

“I’m sorry I worried you,” Belle said finally. She meant it: she knew how fiercely Anna loved and in turn worried about her friends. Since finding Bae and Gold, she had taken for granted that her friends would help her help them. So caught up in her new adventure, she completely overlooked how her absence might worry her loved ones. She recalled Gold’s warning: that she had no idea what helping Bae and him meant.

“Come inside!” Mary Margaret called from the doorway of the lodge. “If I tell Emma we have to wait for you to eat one more time, I’ll have a mutiny on my hands.”

With a delighted woof, Tuesday abandoned her attempts to wrest Peter from Bae and went flying up the steps of the porch and into the house. “Mind she doesn’t help herself to stuffing and gravy!” Granny bid Mary Margaret. The other woman nodded and slipped out of view.

Belle extended her hand to Bae, who hovered near his father. “You’ll want to come meet Emma,” she told him.

Bae looked at her curiously. “Who’s Emma?”

“My friend’s daughter. She’s about your age. Five.”

Never had Belle seen such an expression of offended horror on a child’s face before. “I’m six and a half!” Bae exclaimed.

“There’s a world of difference between five and six and a half,” Gold rasped as Kris and David supported him between them. “Bae is practically a man grown.”

“Daddy says I will need to shave soon,” Bae said imperiously.

Belle stifled a laugh, the first genuine one she’d had all night. Somehow, she knew Bae would not suffer her making light of his maturity. “Emma is pretty cool for a five-year-old,” she confided. “I know her dad has been teaching her to fence.”

Bae rolled his eyes as they walked towards the lodge. “Fences are boring.”

“That’s what we call sword fighting in Maine,” David told him. Bae’s eyes widened in surprise. “Emma’s going to be a pro. If you and your dad stick around for a while, maybe I can teach you some moves.”

“We’ll see,” Gold muttered. Belle could not tell if his expression had turned so grim because of the pain he was in or because David had mentioned staying a while.

“Oh my god, David!” Mary Margaret gasped when she saw Gold’s condition. “I’ll call nine-one-one!”

“No!” Gold bellowed, using perhaps the last reserves of his energy. “We won’t go to the hospital.”

“You need to get your leg set and put in a cast,” Granny said. “And they’ll want to keep you overnight to observe you because of the concussion.”

Gold’s eyes blazed when he looked at Belle. “I said no hospitals.”

“Get them warm, first,” Anna ordered. “Then we’ll discuss our options.”

“It’ll hurt like a bitch to wrap him in blankets if he has a busted leg,” Ruby pointed out.

“She’s right,” Granny agreed. “That’s while we’re going to put him in a tub.”

“A tub?” Gold squeaked as Kris and David began walking him up the stairs to the porch. “With my clothes on?”

“Naked,” Granny said bluntly. “Don’t worry. It’s nothing we haven’t seen before.”

“We?”

Belle saw faint color blooming on Gold’s sharp cheekbones. The sight relieved her immensely: it had to be a good sign that Gold could blush. He at least had the presence of mind to feel embarrassment.

“Would you rather have Kris or David help you?” Ruby asked, grinning. Gold rolled his eyes: another sign that they would save him, if only they warmed him this instant.

“Listen,” Belle interrupted. “You said no hospitals. For now, we’ll respect that. But you half to work with us. A bath is the most reliable way to warm you up right now. You have more important things to worry about than your modesty.”

“I didn’t say anything about no hospitals,” Anna protested.

“We should call Graham too,” Kris added. “He can rouse Leroy, and they can get your car.” They reached the top of the steps and at long last took Gold inside. Belle and Bae followed.

“Graham crackers?” asked Bae hopefully.

Granny snorted. “Only when Ruby’s the one calling him that.”

“How many times do I have to tell you? Graham’s a friend. Nothing more,” Ruby snapped at her grandmother.

Granny looked to Belle and Anna. “Come on, girls. I can’t be the only one who sees it.”

“I’m going to go start the bath,” Anna muttered, attempting to escape without comment.

“Already on it!” called Mary Margaret from down the hall.

Gold lolled his head towards Belle. “I’m still not clear on who Graham is.”

“I want graham crackers!” Bae screeched, dangerously close to the tipping point where otherwise darling children become insatiable little goblins.

“We agreed on hot chocolate, right?” Belle reminded him. “And we have Thanksgiving dinner, too.”

“Everything’s grown cold by now,” Anna said apologetically. “That’s what I’ll do. I’ll warm everything up! Food would do us all good.” Their hostess disappeared to the kitchen.

“Graham is a person, Bae,” Belle told him. She hesitated to continue; she knew Graham would make Gold uneasy if not downright uncooperative. “He’s also our sheriff.”

“A sheriff?” Gold gasped. What color he’d gained from his embarrassment fled his face, replaced by a fearful expression.

David frowned at him. “If you’re looking to avoid police, too, it’s a little late.” With his free hand he reached for the hem of his blue parka, pulling it up to reveal the deputy’s badge clipped to his belt.

Gold moaned unhappily.

“I don’t go looking to arrest people or cause trouble for people for people who’re just trying to live their lives,” David continued, “and right now, I’m more focused on saving your life than what brought you here. But if you’re going to accept our help, at some point you’re also going to have to answer our questions.”

Kris cleared his throat. “To be clear, David’s here as a private citizen.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Belle saw Bae edging away from David. He pressed Peter to his chest as a sort of shield. “What’s the matter, Bae?” she asked him.

“Does he have a gun?” Bae asked her softly.

“Not right now,” David replied. “But I do carry one when I’m at work.”

Bae ignored David and remained focused on Belle. “I don’t like guns,” he whispered, trying to speak quietly enough that the others wouldn’t overhear him. In such close proximity to one another, he failed. “My other daddy has a gun.”

“Your other daddy?” Kris looked perplexed. “Your husband?”

Gold shook his head. “No. Bae’s stepfather.”

It hadn’t occurred yet for Belle to wonder about Bae’s mother. Had she unconsciously noted Gold’s bare ring finger and assumed the woman didn’t exist?

“Won’t he and Bae’s mother be worried about you two?” Granny asked.

Gold’s head dropped. He wouldn’t meet anyone’s gaze, not even Belle’s. “I have sole custody, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

Bae tugged on Belle’s sweater and, when she looked down at him, offered her his hand. She took it in her own, worried at how icy it still felt. “I don’t like living with my other daddy,” he confided to her, “so I don’t.”

Mary Margaret stuck her head out of a bathroom down the hall. “Water’s nice and toasty, when you’re ready.” She caught sight of Gold’s limp, broken leg. “Ouch. You’ll need to keep that out of the water. Submerging a fracture in hot water will increase the pressure in the area.”

“I suppose you’re a doctor,” Gold commented as David and Kris moved him towards the bathroom.

Mary Margaret laughed as she walked towards them. “Hardly! I volunteer at Storybrooke General. You pick up on things.”

“Do you need help in the bath?” Belle asked Gold.

He jerked his head no. “I’ll manage. Please, stay with Bae?”

“Daddy, I want to come too,” Bae protested.

If Gold didn’t want Bae joining him in the bathroom, he might be worried about how his injury might frighten the boy. His dedication to his son’s well being must have been one of the reasons the courts awarded him fully custody. Once again, Gold aroused a myriad of questions while leaving few doubts in Belle’s mind about the quality of his character.

“Stay with Belle, Bae,” Gold instructed his son. “She’ll get you that hot chocolate and some food. And maybe you can meet Emma.”

Bae watched his father uncertainly, returning his focus to Belle only after he’d disappeared into the bathroom. “I would like some hot chocolate now.” He hugged Peter tightly. “Please.”

“Coming right up!” Granny said cheerily. “Let’s go see what else we can rustle up.” She started towards the kitchen.

Mary Margaret grinned at Bae. “You know, it might be hard to introduce you to Emma. She’s hiding, and she’s the best hider I know. We’ll have to wait for her to come out.”

Her ploy worked. “I can find her!” Bae proclaimed, bolting for the living room, his shyness and anxiety forgotten.

“Is it normal for a child to bounce back as easily as that?” Belle asked Mary Margaret.

Her friend shrugged. “Some can. He’s resilient. Why, are you worried about him?” Belle shot her a look. “Right, sorry, of course. He’s been through a lot tonight.”

“And maybe more than we know about,” Ruby added. “Which reminds me. Exactly why did you agree not to call nine-one-one?”

Mary Margaret’s eyes widened. “But Belle! They were in a car accident! And his leg is probably broken!”

“About that,” Belle said. “I thought of a temporary solution.”

“Do share,” Ruby drawled.

“You won’t like it.”

Ruby laughed. "Have I liked much about this situation so far?”

“I thought that if Gold refused to go to a hospital, we could bring the hospital to him.” When Ruby stared blankly at her, Belle added, “I thought we could call a doctor who makes…house calls.”

Mary Margaret’s brows drew together. “What kind of doctor would make a house call on Thanks – oh!” She turned to Ruby, who’d also figured out Belle’s plan and looked decidedly pissed about the role she’d have to play. “Well, he is unconventional enough that he might agree to help.”

Belle fixed Ruby with her most beseeching, pleading look. “I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t this important, Rubes.”

“And what makes Gold and his son so important, Belle?” Ruby demanded. “You’ve known them for less than two hours, and you’re willing to take all sorts of risks for them! We know nothing about these two! Well, except for Gold wanting to avoid hospitals and police!”

Mary Margaret considered Belle. Her expression, one of concern and pity, made Belle as short-tempered as Ruby. “Is this because Will got engaged?” Mary Margaret asked her.

It shouldn’t have hurt so much. But hearing Will’s name and learning he had found a happier life without her felt like a punch to the gut. "Will got engaged?”

Ruby turned her ire on Mary Margaret. “We weren’t sure if you’d heard. Robin told Kris, who told us. We didn’t want to bring it up at Thanksgiving in case it…upset you.”

Belle remembered how, earlier, she considered whether or not Gold’s and Bae’s sudden appearance had made her aware of the depths of her loneliness. Her reaction to this news all but confirmed that. “I’m fine,” she lied, mustering what she hoped looked like a brave smile. “Right now I’m more concerned about Gold and Bae. Ruby, I know it’s a lot to ask, especially when we have so few answers, but I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t trust them.”

“I trust your judgement, Belle,” Mary Margaret said immediately.

Ruby took a few moments longer. "Something isn’t right, Belle.”

Did she mean with Gold and Bae or with Belle herself?

“Please, Ruby. Would you call him?”

For a terrible instant, Belle thought Ruby would refuse. But after staring Belle down for a few seconds more, she groaned and nodded. “You owe me,” she growled.

“Oh, Ruby, thank you!” Belle cried, throwing her arms around the other woman. “Thank you! Thank you!”

“I want you to know, I’m not doing this for them.” Ruby gestured down the hall towards the guest bathroom, where Kris and David attended Gold in his bath. “I’m doing it because I trust you too, Belle.”

The weight of her friends’ confidence in her reminded Belle of the one answer she did have and yet withheld from them: that Gold and Bae had dangers unknown snapping at their heels. She hated lying. She realized she would do it again, to protect this father and son. Belle struggled to quash the wave of guilt rising in her.

Granny popped her head out of the kitchen. “It’s a match made in heaven! You should see how the two of them get along!“ She saw Ruby dialing a number on her cell phone, and her eyebrows shot up. "Graham?”

Ruby grunted and shook her head. “Even better!”

Belle knew the instant the other person answered their phone: Ruby’s lids dropped seductively, and her posture became sleek and sensuous. “Hi there, Doctor. All this thankfulness has me hot and fevered. I really need a check-up. Would you come and take my temperature?”

It took mere minutes to ensnare the man on the other end of the line.

When Ruby hung up, she told them, “Victor’s on his way.” She tried to glare at Belle but failed and broke into a crooked grin. “I’d forgotten how much fun he can be. I think I’ll encourage him to take me out for a night cap when he’s finished with our patient.”

Belle prayed Gold would be as amenable to the idea.


End file.
